A FAMILY of travellers has been ordered to leave Freeport Braintree shopping centre days after parking their caravans on its grounds.
Five caravans, and some trucks and small lorries pitched up on Friday (June 13) and remained on the site over the weekend.
Braintree District Council, Essex Police and Freeport security visited the group on that afternoon at around 3pm and police say the situation is being monitored.
The group says it is all one family that have been moved around by various authorities around the county.
"We just want somewhere we can call home, we keep getting moved from place to place, but we just need out own bit of land," said a member of the Smith family.
"We don't leave rubbish everywhere, we keep it nice and clean and tidy, the people that live near the last place we were actually came and thanked us for leaving it so clean.
"All we need is somewhere to live, the council need to find us somewhere permanent to go.
"The police and council have not treated us fairly wherever we've been.
"A lot of permanent traveller sites don't accept vans or lorries, but this is our living, we need them to survive."
A spokesman for Freeport said they were aware of the camp and had served 24-hour eviction notices to the travellers.
